Big Dog’s Gotta Eat

Big Dog's Gotta Eat

The Lonesome Buckwhips

Released 2007

Inspired by a trip to Japan where sumo wrestlers were constantly attracting the gaze of petite female admirers, The Buckwhips returned to New Zealand to find the craze was catching on over there too. Gary explains, “It was so strange, it was like everywhere we looked, here were these beautiful young women out on dates with these hugely overweight guys. Suddenly obesity was cool.” Arty continues the conversation, “We thought it was a bit gross, but you can’t blame these guys, so we thought ‘Big Dog’s Gotta Eat’ and that was the title of the next album.”

“We achieved a lot on this album, namely the Olympic Anthem, in which we inspired New Zealand athletes to go to Beijing and try to win medals. That’s all we can ask,” says Miri. “So far the song has been tested on a group of discus-throwing rats at Otago University. But we will gauge how successful the song is when Beatrice throws in Beijing. She’s up against it, these rats were pretty good.”